Vincent, Le Magnifique

Just a head’s up that you better act fast to guarantee your Fantastic Fest badges. While out-of-towners gobble up the available passes to this quasi-underground genre film festival, Austinites who traditionally wait until the last minute might wind up at the end of the line.

Austin has been the shooting location for the critically acclaimed and award winning "Friday Night Lights" TV series for just under one and three-quarter seasons. The fractional season, which worked out to 15 episodes rather than 22, was stopped short as a result of the writers' strike. With the strike off, the writers have written their way into the 3rd season and the producers are hoping that a new deal with DIRECTV will bust the cancellation rumors that have loomed over the series.

...and why we can't afford to stay there.

Austin regularly sits atop the gamut of "best of" lists—and all for good reason. Surprisingly, there is one very important list where the state of Texas sits squarely at the bottom. The worst part is the ranking is directly contrary to Austin's most recent list topper.

Austin nets top ranking in the movie-making industry. 

In 2008, MovieMaker magazine ranked Austin as the #1 city to live and make a movie. Even more impressive is that Austin has ranked in the top five of the MovieMaker list for each of the past five years. So the real question is: Does Austin really deserve this long standing distinction? For the answer, let’s take a closer look at the trifecta of factors that producers use in selecting a city to shoot their films.